Identifying work ability promoting factors for home care aides and assistant nurses

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In workplace health promotion, all potential resources needs to be taken into consideration, not only factors relating to the absence of injury and the physical health of the workers, but also psychological aspects. A dynamic balance between the resources of the individual employees and the demands of work is an important prerequisite. In the home care services, there is a noticeable trend towards increased psychosocial strain on employees at work. There are a high frequency of work-related musculoskeletal disorders and injuries, and a low prevalence of sustainable work ability. The aim of this research was to identify factors promoting work ability and self-efficacy in care aides and assistant nurses within home care services.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This study is based on cross-sectional data collected in a municipality in northern Sweden. Care aides (n = 58) and assistant nurses (n = 79) replied to a self-administered questionnaire (response rate 46%). Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were performed to assess the influence of several independent variables on self-efficacy (model 1) and work ability (model 2) for care aides and assistant nurses separately.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Perceptions of personal safety, self-efficacy and musculoskeletal wellbeing contributed to work ability for assistant nurses (R²adj of 0.36, <it>p </it>< 0.001), while for care aides, the safety climate, seniority and age contributed to work ability (R²adj of 0.29, <it>p </it>= 0.001). Self-efficacy was associated with the safety climate and the physical demands of the job in both professions (R²adj of 0.24, <it>p </it>= 0.003 for care aides), and also by sex and age for the assistant nurses (R²adj of 0.31, <it>p </it>< 0.001).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The intermediate factors contributed differently to work ability in the two professions. Self-efficacy, personal safety and musculoskeletal wellbeing were important for the assistant nurses, while the work ability of the care aides was associated with the safety climate, but also with the non-changeable factors age and seniority. All these factors are important to acknowledge in practice and in further research. Proactive workplace interventions need to focus on potentially modifiable factors such as self-efficacy, safety climate, physical job demands and musculoskeletal wellbeing.</p

CEOs in circulation : can new CEO blood revitalize the small firms? : a research proposal

Godkänd; 2000; 20070608 (keni

Building a competence center for entrepreneurial learning in Northern Scandinavia

In Sweden the introduction of entrepreneurial learning into curricula in the entire school system has prompted a need for competence development and research on the subject to satisfy the demand for practical guidance on the practical level and policy development on the different government levels. To address this, Luleå University of Technology together with Umeå University will build a competence center for entrepreneurial learning with a special focus on northern Sweden. In this presentation we will describe and reflect on 1) the current situation in terms of actors and resources linked to entrepreneurial learning; 2) the process we plan to apply in building this competence center, including attracting international actors to a reference group, Swedish national actors as partners and local actors as core center participants; 3) the content in terms of research, education, competence development and collaboration; and 4) guiding principles for how the center will work where the idea is to practice aspects of entrepreneurial learning (i.e. be proactive, creative and initiate action that have potential to provide positive change). One area where we will try to use our innovative power is on how we in a sparsely populated area can reach out to places far away from the University using new technology for communication and collaboration. Here the center can collaborate with CiiR (Center for interorganizational innovation research) an existing Vinnova excellence center at LTU/UmU focusing on innovation in sparsely populated areas.Godkänd; 2013; 20130605 (ysko

Interdisciplinary research schools for PhD students : a bumpy road with uncertain outcomes

Godkänd; 2005; 20070531 (ysko

Does the CEO matter? : an empirical study of small firms operating in a turbulent environment

Godkänd; 1996; 20080328 (ysko)</p

Managing in turbulence : an empirical study of small firms operating in a turbulent environment

This thesis deals with how small firms, and especially their CEOs, manage their situation in times of high environmental turbulence. Eight firms have been chosen for the empirical study based on their performance and the CEO’s self-efficacy and tolerance for ambiguity. Interviews with the CEO and employees at each firm, observations, gathering of annual reports and a questionnaire are the principal means used for data collection. The results show that the CEO is very influential at all firms, regardless how the company performs. A CEO that tolerate uncertainty is better able to engage in enterprising, which seems necessary in turbulence. A CEO with high self- efficacy is generally able to control his firms destiny by having access to the appropriate resources for the task (e.g. own ability and network). However, too high self-efficacy could be a sign of dysfunctional overconfidence, where the CEO dismiss relevant information from actors around him.Godkänd; 1998; 20061120 (haneit

The elusive family firm : what makes the distinction between family firms and other firms

Godkänd; 2008; 20081013 (anna_v

Business ethics and systems thinking

This paper discusses the development of research in business ethics and recent directions taken by scholars in the field. We also analyze ethical considerations in systems theory and speculate on the possibilities of examining business ethics from a systemic perspective.Godkänd; 1997; 20070219 (evan

Success with succession : an empirical study of small Swedish family firms

Successful succession in small family firms may be a key to sustainability for the individual firm but also to regional growth. This paper examines how leadership succession factors associated to attitudes, norms and perceived havioural control of leading actors in a small family firm can be related to how well the succession process works and to the firm's post-transition performance. We structure factors pointed out in earlier studies according to Ajzen's theory of planned behaviour (TpB) where we put forward hypotheses for the three areas. The results based on a survey of 55 small family firms that have experienced a leadership succession show that TpB works well for understanding a successful succession process, but is dismal for understanding post-transition performance. The strongest results are found for aspects linked to perceived behavioural control and attitudes.Validerad; 2010; 20091208 (evan